Review: Cheeky Munky Pocket Nappies

Cheeky Munky nappies come in some nice colours. We went with purple, orange, yellow and blue.

When I was looking at cloth nappies for Chipmunk’s still-cooking bum, I didn’t have much money spare. I was after the cheapest thing I could find that would do the job. A comment on a message board led me to eBay, and a store called Frank Masons. There I found Cheeky Munky nappies.

Cheeky Munky are a one size fits most, pocket nappy. They came with terry towelling inserts, which do a pretty good job on soaking up liquid. The pocket is made of PUL on the outside, and polyester on the inside. We haven’t had any issues with Chipmunk’s bum staying wet, so the polyester does a good job of wicking the urine through. The cover is big enough that you can stuff it with two inserts if you need to. (Face washers make handy emergency nappy stuffing, by the way.)

One thing I find particularly excellent about the polyester inner – toddler poop comes off it easily. We’ve added a bunch of Itty Bitty all-in-ones to our stash (courtesy of a friend – thanks Ash!), and while they’re super convenient (just grab and go once they’re dry), we have a much harder time knocking solids off them and into the toilet. This is partly due to the different material used on the inner, and partly the construction. The all-in-ones have a “tongue” that folds down over the thick, main part of the nappy. If the poop is less than firm, or pasty, it tends to get stuck in the folds of cloth. Ick.

Cheeky Munkies are built pretty much like the disposable version, so they’re easy to operate. Just do up the front snaps to the size of your bub. I like the snaps over Velcro, as they’re quieter. You also don’t have to worry about fluff getting caught on snaps.

We’ve had a pretty good run with them: in two and a half years of constant use, we’ve only had two failures of the PUL in a cover, and one elastic failure at the back of a pocket. These were both on yellow ones, but I don’t know if the colour had anything to do with it.

One problem we did have in the early days was the leg holes. The elastic doesn’t come up quite far enough for use on a skinny legged baby, like Chipmunk was when she first popped out. Upon further research, though, this seems to be a very common problem with most cloth nappies. It took about eight weeks before Chipmunk was fat enough that the nappies fit reliably.

Honestly, though, it wasn’t too bad having to use disposables (except for the expense). It gave me time to settle into having another human being dependent on me 24-7, and lightened our workload a little. Having one less thing to worry about with a newborn is pretty nice.

Chipmunk has now been in cloth for almost exactly two and a half years, and they still fit her well. She’s on the last set of snaps around the waist. Given her current growth rate (and a little luck and dedication) she should be toilet trained by the time she grows out of them.

It’s true these nappies aren’t as gorgeous as many of the cloth offerings out there. But for the price, they’re a wonderful investment that will saves you heaps of money over buying disposables.

UPDATE: A quick look on eBay has informed me that the Cheeky Munky branded nappies appear to have vanished. Never fear, though, this seller here seems to be selling the exact same thing in lots of 10, 20, 30 or 50 nappies.

TL;DR

Cheap (~$4/nappy), good workhorse.

Most economical in lots of 20, but that’s about how many you need per baby anyway.

Dry quickly: few hours in summer, overnight in winter. Inserts can be tumble dried

Covers are best dried in shade (no tumble drying!) This isn’t a problem for us as we don’t own a tumble drier

Simple to use, one size fits most (Chipmunk was ~6 weeks old before her legs were thick enough)

Inserts are made of terry cloth, easy to make more/double them up/use face washers instead

Do up with plastic snaps – quieter and cleaner than Velcro

Couple of PUL failures over 12 months, 1 elastic failure at back of pocket